The Cuban authorities have received more than 80,000 applications for self-employment since the start of the reform begun by the government last October to expand the private sector on the island, announced the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This opening hopes to absorb part of the 500,000 persons who will be jobless up to March 2011.
Read More“This is getting bad. We hear that they’re going to take away the ration books,” says an elderly man, his elbows resting on the countertop of a small shop in Havana. “For whatever it’s worth,” replies a woman in a low voice as she makes her monthly ration purchases.
Read MoreThe urban and suburban agriculture programmes will be extended to 156 of the 169 municipalities of Cuba before the close of the year, said Adolfo Rodriguez, head of the National Group in charge of that initiative, which until now has 36,000 farms throughout the island. The Caribbean country’s authorities are promoting the local production of food to reduce imports, estimated at more than two billion dollars.
Read MoreThe Partagás cigar factory, located in the Cuban capital, donated 23,600 convertible pesos (around 29,000 dollars) to the country’s health system. The donation comes from its annual meeting, which on this occasion convened more than 400 specialists in the production and sale of this product as well as cigar aficionados from around a dozen countries.
Read MoreThe trial begun by Ana Margarita Martínez, ex wife of a Cuban spy, who is demanding 27 million dollars from the airlines that carry out charter flights to Cuba, will remain in a federal court due to the U.S. government’s interest in the case, Judge Federico A. Moreno announced. Washington and the affected companies agree that the result of this demand could paralyze flights to Cuba.
Read MoreCuban intellectual Alfredo Guevara, president of the New Latin American Film Festival, backed the process of shrinking the State’s role in Cuba and expressed his hope that the government will limit its functions and allow the development of society, in a press conference held in the island’s capital. The government of Raúl Castro has begun a series of economic reforms that should be deepened in 2011, after the holding of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.
Read MoreSpain’s Sol Meliá chain will open the Buenavista Hotel in December, the 25th on the list of hotel installations managed by that company in Cuba, Juan Carlos López, city hotel sales head of the Marketing Department on the island, announced. The new five-star, 105-room all-inclusive is located on Cayo Santa María, on the northern central coast.
Read MoreCuban specialists will share their experiences on ecological and sustainable agriculture with more than 700 colleagues from 16 countries during the 7th Scientific Congress of the Agricultural Sciences Institute (ICA), to be held at the headquarters of this center in San José de las Lajas, south of the island’s capital, from November 23 to 26,
Read MoreThe Council of Ministers of Cuba approved the Economic Plan and State Budget for 2011 during a meeting held this weekend, the island’s state-run press reported today. That strategy, which has to be approved by parliament, begins a five-year period marked by the so-called updating of Cuban socialism.
Read MoreCuba’s insurance authorities have published a complete list of the foreign travel policy sellers that are valid for visiting the island. Here is an explanation on how to explore the list.
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